EPL Offside, Weekly Preview – When Heroes Return

By: Rob | December 12th, 2008

Franco goes home. Sort of.

Yep, its that time of the week, when we answer all the weeks big questions. Will Man City really pay Gigi Buffon 250k a week? Will Arsenal ever find a bit of form? Will Zaki leave Wigan? Will Berba get a nice reception against Spurs? No. Will Zola get a nice reception from Chelsea fans? Yes.

We’ll preview the big games of the week, discuss the big stories, make rash predictions, and tell you who to pick for your fantasy football teams, right after the jump.

Interesting news story this morning – Buffon has said he’ll move to Man City, if they pay him 250k a week. Do you think they’ll capitulate?
Wayne – It’s not going to happen in my opinion. Especially since it was broken that Buffon denied claims he made that comment. If he did say it though, I’d say fair play to him. City have been mouthing off about buying this player and that player, so it’ll be interesting to see if they put their money where their mouths are. If rumours are to be believed, come January City’s two goalkeepers will be Gigi and Casillas. Not bad, eh?
Rob - Yeah but I think its fair to say if they got one, they wouldn’t bother with the other. I think Buffon probably did say it, thinking City won’t cough up. He’s bound to deny it now, that’s etiquette, but if he did say it, he does have a point – if City were to throw that much money at Juve, they’d be crazy not to take it, even for one of the best players in the world, which pound for pound, Gigi is. I’d love to see him here.

A lot of transfer rumours flying round at the minute in general, which do you think might come off?
Wayne - To me, David Villa’s proposed move to City will happen. Valencia aren’t in the CL and his agent is saying it’s developing. If he does come then it’ll be a huge coup, no doubt. He’d light the EPL up with his pace and general play. He’s a gifted footballer and any team would be lucky to have him. I’d like to see that deal done.
Rob - Oh I’d love to see David Villa here. In my opinion he’s even better than Fernando Torres, and I rate El Nino very highly indeed. Away from City, I could see Chelsea snapping up a striker, maybe Zaki, and I could see Heskey rejoining Martin O’Neill at Villa, unless his Birmingham ties get in the way.

The Jekyll and Hyde that is Arsenal lost again in midweek against Porto, how come they can’t find any consistency?
Wayne - I don’t think you can really blame the Porto result on inconsistency. Porto are not a bad team, and they were playing at home! Besides, Arsenal had a below strength team out and had already qualified for the knockout stages. But saying that, a defeat is still a defeat. When people look back on that result in the record books, it’s not going to say FC Porto 2 – 0 Understrength Arsenal. I think that Arsene Wenger needs to start playing his full strength side all the time. Defeat stop any flow that a team may have and right now Arsenal can’t afford to have whatever flow they get going interrupted.
Rob - They’ve really been the big story again this year, albeit not for the reasons they were last time out! I’d like to see them hit a bit of form now, just so that there is a proper 4 horse title race. That’d be amazing.

Looking at the way the group stage went do you think the CL winner will come from the EPL?
Wayne - I think it will. But Barca and Juventus look good this year, especially Barca. I don’t think it’ll be another all-English final but I do think at least one English side will be there, and I think that they’ll win it. I think that the EPL is so strong at the moment that it’s inevitable that EPL sides will begin to win the CL more.
Rob - Barca are favourites for sure. Last season they looked beautiful but toothless, this year, they have all that bite, and then some. They are scoring goals for absolute fun. If they don’t draw one another before, I’d predict a Chelsea/Barca final. Which will be a great watch I should think.

A few decent games this week, including Franco Zola returning to Chelsea, and Man United taking on Spurs, how do you see them going?
Wayne - Zola’s return to Chelsea will be a good day. There are lots of former players of each club on either team and obviously in Zola, West ham have the man that Chelsea fans voted their greatest player. I don’t know if it’ll be a happy day on the pitch for Zola though. His West Ham side have been better the last few games, with some much needed clean sheets. However, although Chelsea have only 3 home wins so far I think that they’re far to strong for West Ham. They always seem to do well against the Hammers and I think that’ll continue. The match at White Hart Lane will be a cracker. Both sides are in good form and it’ll be a close match I think. It will be interesting to see if Berba is fit as I’d like to see how he reacts to the inevitable reception he gets, bad, I assume. It’d be nice to really see him start banging in the goals at his old ground. I do think though that United really need to win this game. They drew away to Everton and have had some shaky results away, so they need three points. I think it’ll be a draw though.
Rob - Well West Ham did Chelsea a favour last week by holding Liverpool, it’ll be interesting if they can do that again against The Blues. I personally blame the fact that I dropped Rob Green from my dream team, he’s been back to his brilliant best since! Its funny we are talking about “ooh can West Ham get a result at the Bridge”, couple of months ago I’d have said “No, they can’t, no-one does. Next!”, that loss against Liverpool might have big reprecussions.
As for Spurs/United, should be a good game. Spurs have won 7 of 9 under ‘Arry, but this is the time of year when United start to really play. They are still in touch, and its usually circa christmas that they start firing on all cylinders. I don’t expect a 0-0, put it that way.

There’s also Man City and Everton going at it, which should be a good game?
Wayne - Yeah, it should be a good game. City are good at home and Everton are good away, so it should be an interesting tie. Everton’s hearts were broken last weekend by Villa and I think their hearts won’t feel much better after this one, I see lots of goals in this one, for Man City. Just a hunch, but I think it’ll happen. Lately however, my prediction skills have been way off, but after winning Wednesday’s goal guess on Laurie’s CL LiveBlog I’m feeling good again.
Rob – I was one out on the Tuesday liveblog! I reckon a high-score draw for this one. Both sides have looked alright going forward but a bit wanting at the back, so I’m looking forward to kicking back and watching the goals fly in.

Fantasy Football pick? Wayne- Afonso Alves. Middlesbrough do well fairly regularly against Arsenal. And considering Arsenal are up and down these days, I think that ‘Boro will win it. I think Alves will score in that one.
Rob – Well you’ve predicted Arsenal to loose before, so maybe I should tell everyone to pick Cec Fábregas? Just kidding. Rory Delap has an arm injury this week, which I thought was funny, so he’s dropped from my side, and I replaced him with Michael Carrick. Players usually score against their old clubs.